Tuesday, 2 October 2012

A recent article posted in the Wall Street Journal posed the question, “Are ADHD Medications Overprescribed?”Is that a rhetorical question? 5 million children are currently taking ADHD drugs in the U.S. alone.

In fact the U.S. has the unfortunate distinction of being the world’s leader when it comes to child drugging—the top nation fueling the $7.2 billion-a-year ADHD drug industry.

The fact that parents are buying into the ADHD marketing campaign is in no small part due to the rampant disinformation being spread by some “leading” psychiatrists, many who have been exposed by federal lawmakers for receiving huge amounts of undisclosed Pharma funding. In the Wall Street Journal article, “Are Children Being Over Medicated” we find one of the biggest proponents of child labeling and drugging, psychiatrist Harold Koplewicz.

As far as ADHD drugs being “effective” — also false. A long-term monitoring program involving 600 kids across the United States found ADHD drugs ineffective in the long term. Another February 2010 Australian study found “ADHD medications, at best, are unsuccessful and, at worst, harm class performance and step-up the risk of stroke and cardiovascular complications.”

Now onto the diagnosis. Koplewicz’s statement that ADHD is “real.“ If he means real as in a real checklist of normal childhood behaviors which have been repackaged by psychiatrists and sold as a “disease”—then that’s the only qualification of “real” that holds up under scrutiny.

Fact: The only “test” for ADHD is a checklist of behaviors. That’s it. The ADHD checklist includes such things as:

“runs about or climbs excessively in situations when it is not appropriate”

”is often ‘on the go

”acts as if driven by a motor”

”blurts out answers”

”is easily distracted”

” loses pencils or toys”

“often doesn’t seem to listen”

Now to be perfectly clear, kids can suffer from lead toxicity which manifests the exact same symptoms as the ADHD “checklist” but then they are suffering from lead toxicity—not “mental illness.” The same can be said of allergies, toxins, an inability to read, poor diet, but then they are suffering from allergies, toxins, an inability to read—not a “mental illness.” ADHD is a psychiatric label. It designates the child as mentally ill. It stigmatizes the child as mentally ill for life.

To quote psychiatrist Allen Frances, former DSM Task Force Chairman, “There are no objective tests in psychiatry-no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder.” “There is no definition of a mental disorder. It’s bull—.”
We agree.